D&D 5E Doctors & Daleks - Cubicle 7 Brings Doctor Who to D&D 5E

Cubicle 7 -- makers of the official Doctor Who roleplaying game -- has announced that the Doctor will officially be coming to 5E soon under the name Doctors and Daleks. There are no dates or details yet, over than that the Doctors and Daleks Player's Guide will launch 'soon'.

A NEW COMPANION FOR YOUR ADVENTURES THROUGH ALL OF SPACE AND TIME!

The wild adventures of everyone’s favourite Time Lord comes to the world’s most popular roleplaying game in Doctors and Daleks. Take your gaming group into the TARDIS and travel anywhere, anywhen. Want to meet Leornado da Vinci? Or see what life is like in the year 3,000? What about another planet entirely? All of space and time is your Venusian macro-oyster, but keep your wits about you — there’s a lot of danger in the vastness of eternity.

We are delighted to announce that we are working on Doctors and Daleks – a new line of products that brings Doctor Who adventures to your table using 5th Edition rules! The first release – The Doctors and Daleks Player’s Guide will launch soon.

The wild adventures of everyone’s favourite Time Lord comes to the world’s most popular roleplaying game in Doctors and Daleks. Take your gaming group into the TARDIS and travel anywhere, anywhen.

We’ll also continue to support the new Second Edition of our award winning Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game, with a host of new products on the way soon!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I love the Doctor Who RPG, it's great and can handle everything from the show.

DnD 5e is good for Dungeons & Dragons and not anything else IMO. Sure, one could throw out everything and just keep the roll a d20, but is it really 5e at that time?

IMO, “the 5e engine” is the basic d20 mechanic, advantage and disadvantage, broadly and loosely defined proficiencies, and a set of theme and design aesthetics.

Heck, even levels don’t actually need to mean more power, they can simply serve as a pacing mechanic.

 

[darjr]

 

[Corone]

I think it is worth remembering that this new 5e Who isn't replacing the new version of Adventures in Time and Space.
There are some people who refuse to play much other than D&D and this brings that setting to them, plus offering a lot of cool new space and time stuff that might not be available.
I ran a lot of both One Ring and Adventures in Middle Earth at cons (when we had them) and often the same scenario.
(full disclosure, I still work for C7)
C7 did such a good job with AiME that it never felt like a compromise. Frankly you just rolled slightly different dice, that was the only difference. It had the same character and adventure options were all there.
I imagine this new Who 5e will do the same thing.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I ran a direct conversion of a Doctor Who story in 5e a couple of months ago (4th Doctor, The Stones of Blood). My players thought it was great, and had no idea until I told them at the end.

 

[Aldarc]

To borrow an idea from anthropology, it's the idea of limited good. There is only so much "good" to go around, and if publisher wastes their resources on something I don't like, something I don't think is "good", then that takes away from the amount of "good" available, less for me.

It's not a terribly realistic mindset, and its rather selfish. But I think it, or something like it, lies behind folks lashing out at companies daring to create things not for them.

I'm not sure if I agree with your assessment here, and trying to paint people frustrated with this situation in the market with a broad brush as being "selfish" or "unrealistic" does no one any justice here either.

There has been a relatively recent increase in the number of games designed using the D&D 5E system. And that won't appeal to everyone, and that's okay. But to feel fatigue or upset over that is rather silly, IMO. Purchase and play what you like, don't waste time getting toxic about others choices that don't really impact you in any significant way.

I don't think it is silly to feel that way, IMO. But please feel free to continue shaming others for how they may be feeling.

Another take on the frustration:


Likewise Eric Campbell, who defended Cubicle 7, admits that part of the issue involves the market reality of "5e = success" for designers and streamers.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Don't hate the player; hate the game!

 

[Aldarc]

Don't hate the player; hate the game!

However, if the game favors one player and the only way to compete in the game is to design stuff for that one player who will always win and to reinforce their competitive advantage, I think those other players will eventually begin to resent both.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If I buy Doctors & Daleks will be not to play adventures in Dr.Who universe, but to use a mash-up version of Dr.Who (very rich) mythology in my D&D setting.

If I want "crunch" I buy D&D or Pathfinder, if I want lore I read fandom wikis. I am willing to buy Rokugan d20, but no other book of "Legend of the five Rings".

If D&D players discover Dr Who mythology and they start to create their own fan-fiction, and this could save the brand in the future. We have to rebember the last seasons of the adction-live show lost a lot of audence. Maybe even with a little luck, Torchwood could enjoy a revival thanks D&D players who start to publish fanfic in internet based in their own games.

Of course after lots of games, success and failures, the experience can teach us how to do it better, but we have to start with the first steps. We have to face the risks, and criticizing the cooked meal is easier than cook it.

If now there are troubles, I don't want to imagine the day when the official psionic powers return to the 5th Ed.

The relation between the timelords and the spellcasters shouldn't be too good.

I guess Doctors & Daleks will not use the D&D classes, focused into magic, stealth or fight, but their own and completely new list.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I went back and read the tweets on the C7 account. I pulled a single comment that has kind of stuck and one I've seen in different iterations.

"I think it's telling that the majority of people complaining about the 5e conversion don't currently play the non-5e version of the game either."

That struck me... If you are complaining about this, do you currently play the current licensed game (which they are still planning on producing and supporting)? And if not, why are you complaining? The people that are currently part of that community, okay, makes sense, but everyone else... sounds like sour grapes.

But that's just my 2 cp.

 

[John R Davis]

As a fan of both I'm struggling to see how this will work. Some of the essence of 5e ( levels, hit points, AC, weapons, etc) just aren't a thing for companions.
We are left with
Skill checks.
Saving throws
Background ( little of which is of much help in many episodes).

Maybe they will introduce social conflict, to hard wire in a lot of the chat that happens in an episode
They could create some specific Conditions.

May need a techno-babble mechanic as well.

More detailed chase mechanic.

I'm just don't envisage how this will all play out. Maybe I should wait and see and be pleasantly surprised.